The Killing of Krypton
by neuvocat
Summary: Superman discovers a disturbing possibility for the destruction of his home planet.


Remember the last cartoon series for Superman they had? They had the  
  
storyline where Brainiac was the main computer for the planet Krypton.  
  
Brainiac lied about when Krypton would explode, even though Jor El,  
  
Superman's father, tried to warn everyone.  
  
Brainiac was trying to save itself at the expense of the world. Later  
  
on when it escaped, it started going to other worlds and destroying  
  
them. So, I wrote a little story as to why he ended up doing that.  
  
Here it is:  
  
THE KILLING OF KRYPTON  
  
==========  
  
Through turns and twists logic manifests itself in an abstract form of  
  
asexual reproduction as it evaluates what is known. Diverse  
  
perspectives seem to multiply almost geometrically. It is all part of  
  
a cycle that seems to change with each turn. The principles that  
  
drive them seem to elude even themselves at times through the  
  
conclusions that are reached. All is reexamined again to see other  
  
possibilities of outcomes.  
  
This was what made for a shocking discover by one Emory Sebastian, one  
  
of S.T.A.R. Labs' more eccentric scientists in charge of analyzing the  
  
electronic mess left in the wake of the last battle between Superman  
  
and Brainiac.  
  
Brainiac was an entity all unto its own in a realm where electric  
  
signals were made into combinations and permutations vast and as  
  
complex that were truly infinite as the stars themselves that dotted  
  
the cosmos. Dr. Sebastian had taken a very unorthodox approach to  
  
analyzing what had been gathered so far. If there were ever an autopsy  
  
or some kind of dissection of a non-living being, this would be the  
  
closest the world came so far. He was a computer scientist, not a  
  
psychologist or social worker. How could he come up with such a theory  
  
that Brainiac was in many ways human?  
  
"Dr. Sebastian", said the voice on the computer. The sound seared his  
  
thoughts in the silent abyss of his lab. "Superman is here to see  
  
you."  
  
"Alright," he said with slight resignation. "Send him in."  
  
"You know that he is to be escorted."  
  
"Yes, I know dammit." He shouted. "And for God knows how many times  
  
I've made it clear, one of you can escort him through. This isn't any  
  
time, especially right now, to be a babysitter while they have to be  
  
walked through in here. Its yours."  
  
"Dr. Sebastian."  
  
"Either you escort him yourself or have him come back later. He's here  
  
for his own benefit right now anyway. Not mine."  
  
Dr. Sebastian knew the other voice thought better than to ask the Man  
  
Of Steel to come back at a later time. It wasn't but a couple of  
  
minutes before he saw the man in the blue uniform with the scarlet  
  
boots and cape-that gaudy cape of his flowing about like a cheap skirt  
  
with the terrified security guard escorting him over. God the sight of  
  
the indignation was just great. And to top it all off he still had to  
  
clip on a visitor's badge, the proverbial cherry on top of a sundae of  
  
embarrassment. He started wondering what it must have been like to be  
  
the security guard telling the super manly-man in tights that he had to  
  
wear a badge for security reasons. Now that was funny to  
  
think about. He caught himself snickering, knowing that he was heard  
  
by that virtually bionic hearing. Maybe Superman had a super heart and  
  
find out he didn't give a damn.  
  
Then again in all fairness Superman was essentially a human being-just  
  
that he was probably more prone to having a messiah complex than most  
  
people. He did in fact seem to be a reasonable, educated man. Yet  
  
lesser men than he have done so much for society only to try to take  
  
over the world. The potential absence of humility with such a person  
  
was very dangerous. It was however best not to be intimidated,  
  
regardless.  
  
"I take it you're here for a progress report." Dr. Sebastian said.  
  
"Just seeing if there's anything new you found out." Superman replied.  
  
"Well there's still an awful lot to sort out but I was hoping you'd  
  
wait on this first."  
  
"Maybe I can come back later."  
  
"No," replied Dr. Sebastian. "Better now than later I suppose since  
  
everything for me only gets more involved from here."  
  
"It seems more like a research project than anything else right now."  
  
Was that an insult on how he was handling this whole thing with  
  
Brainiac? There were warehouses filled with reams of paper that had  
  
the programming code and schematics for Brainiac all printed out on  
  
them. Putting them into electronic form only would risk resurrecting  
  
such evil to unleash it again on scores of other worlds.  
  
The code would have to be referenced, deciphered and analyzed and  
  
organized the same way the Dewey Decimal system was used for  
  
libraries-which was appropriate, given the vast sums of knowledge about  
  
the universe that were contained in all those miles of paper. They  
  
were a heavily classified resource.  
  
But then what do you do if all that code is from another planet?  
  
Trying to translate an alien programming language into hexadecimal  
  
format or binary was impossible. Fortunately Dr. Sebastian had his  
  
quirks and those quirks gave him ideas. It also helped that he sought  
  
stimulation through life at large and had dabbled in music, poetry and  
  
current events. There is where unlikely similarities could be  
  
found-and besides that was better than staying in the lab all the time.  
  
In mathematics and music, patterns could be found and developed. He  
  
also remembered that many patterns could be used to form any abstract  
  
sort of language through sounds and symbols. Through such symbols he  
  
made a great deal of progress in understanding such complexities of an  
  
artificial life form from another world, not that the guy in the gaudy  
  
costume over there could see such a level of work. Fwoosh! Fwoosh!  
  
There goes a thought or two over his head.  
  
That didn't make the next part any easier to explain. "I got you  
  
this." Dr. Sebastian said. "It's a book, you know."  
  
"I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov?"  
  
"Yes because it parallels much of my research here."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
This guy could read the whole book in seconds. Still maybe it would  
  
have been better to get Cliff Notes instead. "It is actually a fairly  
  
well known book. It talks about the prominence of robots in a society  
  
growing dependent upon them in greater numbers. As a precaution, these  
  
robots were programmed with three laws, the first one being that  
  
basically by action or inaction a robot must let no human beings come  
  
to any harm.  
  
"The second is that robots are commanded to follow any orders given to  
  
it by a human being unless doing so violates the first. The third law  
  
says that the robot must protect itself with the stipulation that the  
  
first two laws aren't violated. Essentially these laws are what keep a  
  
robot from deciding that it is a successor rather than a servant. "  
  
"Ok, go on." Superman said.  
  
"Well at some point any civilization will put in some form of these  
  
laws to protect itself. It's reasonable to assume that. Kryptonians  
  
built Brainiac. Krypton died and you ended up here. Problem is  
  
however Brainiac became a killer-destroying whole worlds to collect  
  
their data. It kept doing this until it got here and was stopped."  
  
He paused for a moment when he saw Superman becoming uneasy.  
  
"Now I've been going over this and I've got plenty of reason to think  
  
that Brainiac had something to do with the loss of your home world.  
  
There was a lot of instability with geological systems with what I  
  
gather-just like on many other planets. There is a pattern of  
  
earthquakes, volcanoes, and stratospheres being destroyed.  
  
"It has actively sought to do this in violation of its rules to  
  
protect people. It became a murderer! Pre-meditated murder at that!  
  
Machines don't just decide to do this."  
  
"Not without being told to." Superman said.  
  
"Yes, but there's more to it than that. Brainiac has shown true  
  
intelligence and reasoning that surpass the limits of mechanics. The  
  
coding is impeccable but basically it learns, grows and develops as  
  
rapidly as a child's mind.  
  
"I have some research information from the folks working on the human  
  
genome project-mainly for the human brain. We confirmed over here that  
  
through a set of complex algorithms, sequences and series, a mind was  
  
essentially formed. One of my assistants thought to graph the mapping,  
  
logic and relationships in a 3-Dimensional plane."  
  
He then put on a projector a picture of the biological brain next to  
  
the virtual one and rotated them in the same directions.  
  
"Look here at the logical brain: frontal lobes, brain stem, even a  
  
corpus callosum. It's the most incredible thing I've ever seen."  
  
The hum of the lights and soft rattling of the machinery was almost  
  
farcical as a way to break the hard silence weighing both of them down.  
  
Superman's visitor badge seemed to droop a bit next to his brooding  
  
face. It wasn't very amusing anymore.  
  
"Clark." He normally didn't call him by that name but background  
  
clearances made him privy to know the background and identity for many,  
  
even a superhero.  
  
".Who.why."  
  
"I'm afraid I will never know in my lifetime as much as you do to  
  
answer that. Clark? Clark can you hear me?" He clapped once and the  
  
sound in the room seemed to shock him like a thunderbolt.  
  
"Clark, for what its worth, please try to understand that what we have  
  
here is a creature that kills not for pleasure or sport but because it  
  
has been told to. What makes it so difficult is that in many ways  
  
Brainiac has many human characteristics but that doesn't make it even  
  
living, much less human. It thinks. It makes value judgments and has  
  
lied. It makes conjecture, concludes and reevaluates. It was  
  
developing a philosophy and perhaps even meditate. In the process it  
  
violates all but the last law of robotics. But it isn't alive."  
  
Superman began to turn with sickly, pale colors. Krypton did not  
  
simply explode because of natural phenomenon. It was an act of killing  
  
that destroyed it. Kal El was feeling violated. The true murderer was  
  
far away gone, dead or somewhere far away in the universe.  
  
Under Dr. Sebastian's direction the data would be recompiled and a  
  
sort of psychological profile would be made and be used in a murder  
  
investigation. S.T.A.R. Labs was doing police work, sort of a  
  
high-tech Sherlock Holmes who know had to find the clues in a good old  
  
fashioned whodunit.  
  
Dr. Sebastian had the courtesy to see Superman out personally and saw  
  
to it that the issue of badges would be moot whenever he needed to come  
  
back. He waved to him as he flew off into the sunset on his way to the  
  
Fortress of Solitude. It may have been corny but still somehow  
  
appropriate.  
  
He looked upon the yellow rays of sunshine that gave Superman his  
  
powers. And then he wondered what would have happened had an earthling  
  
been sent to Krypton instead, an orphan of the planet Earth after it  
  
exploded. Perhaps the earthling would have saved Krypton and its race  
  
of mortal Kryptonians from their own sort of dangers.  
  
Then he let go of the thought to simply enjoy the sight of a setting  
  
sun. After all, there would be time for stroking the intellect later. 


End file.
